Prompted by a full Companion Chronicles sale, here is the second part of my guide said range. It follows on from The R3 Companion Chronicles Collector’s Guide Part I. This part covers series 5 – 8.
This is intended as a reference and is field under Home > Guides, as are all the other Red Rocket series guides.
The details
These are my opinions which are similar to many people’s though for all the ones I’ve left blank I am sure that there are many people who love them. You’ll see that (for me) the series took a while to get going with the better stories in later series.
My definitions are:
- Classic – must have, great stories
- Essential – you need this to follow a story arc, or for some other reason
- Good – the best stories
- Interesting – this has one or more features that make it worth listening to
Companion Chronicles Series 5 – 8
MAny DEaths o
Release | Title | Guide | Notes |
5.01 | Guardians of the Solar System | Classic | The final part of the Sara Kingdom Trilogy |
5.02 | Echoes of Grey | Essential | Part of an arc of what happened next stories for Zoe |
5.03 | Find and Replace | Interesting | Jo Grant meets Iris Wildthyme |
5.04 | Invasion of E-Space | Interesting | Andrew Smith writes an E-Space tale for Romana |
5.05 | Town Called Fortune | ||
5.06 | Quinnis | Good | A weird Marc Platt story for Susan that is a (sort of) prequel to Relative Dimensions |
5.07 | Peri and the Piscon Paradox | Classic | If you only have one of this range, make it this Peri / Fixth / Sixth Doctor story |
5.08 | Perpetual Bond | Essential | Simon Guerrier starts the Oliver Harper trilogy |
5.09 | Forbidden Time | ||
5.10 | Sentinels of the New Dawn | Interesting | Liz Shaw meets the Sentinels (cf Lost Stories: Leviathan) |
5.11 | Ferril’s Folly | Interesting | A Romana I story sliced into the Key to Time |
5.12 | Cold Equations | Good | More Oliver Harper |
6.01 | Tales from the Vault | Good | An essential Jonathan Morris story that introduces some new characters |
6.02 | Rocket Men | Essential | John Dorney introduces the Rocket Men! |
6.03 | Memory Cheats | ||
6.04 | Many Deaths of Jo Grant | Good | In which Cavan Scott and Mark Wright kill Jo Grant. A lot! |
6.05 | First Wave | Good | The end of the Oliver Harper trilogy |
6.06 | Beyond the Ultimate Adventure | ||
6.07 | Anachronauts | Good | A moody Simon Guerrier Steven / Sara Kingdom tale |
6.08 | Selachian Gambit | Interesting | Steve Lyons has fun with Jamie and Polly |
6.09 | Binary | ||
6.10 | Wanderer | ||
6.11 | Jigsaw War | Interesting | An Eddie Robson story for Jamie you can listen to on shuffle! |
6.12 | Rings of Ikiria | ||
7.01 | The Time Museum | Good | A museum dedicated to Ian Chesterton — what’s not to like?! |
7.02 | The Uncertainty Principle | ||
7.03 | Project Nirvana | Good | Action as The Forge intersects a complex Seventh Doctor story |
7.04 | The Last Post | Essential | Caroline John’s final performance as Liz Shaw |
7.05 | The Return of the Rocket Men | Good | Matt Fitton takes up the story of the Rocket Men |
7.06 | The Child | ||
7.07 | The Flames of Cadiz | Good | A fascinating historical tale by Marc Platt |
7.08 | House of Cards | ||
7.09 | The Scorchies | Essential | In which James Goss gives us The Scorchies! |
7.10 | The Library of Alexandria | ||
7.11 | The Apocalypse Mirror | ||
7.12 | Council of War | Interesting | An amusing story for Sergeant Benton by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris |
8.01 | Mastermind | Good | Jonathan Morris returns to The Vault! |
8.02 | The Alchemists | Interesting | Susan and the Doctor in pre-WWII Germany |
8.03 | Upstairs | Interesting | Mad yet evocative |
8.04 | Ghost in the Machine | Good | Louise Jameson’s debut as director |
8.05 | The Beginning | Good | Stealing the TARDIS to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary |
8.06 | The Dying Light | ||
8.07 | Luna Romana | Interesting | Romana III introduced by Matt Fitton |
8.08 | The Sleeping City | ||
8.09 | Starborn | Interesting | An emotional tale from Jaq Rayner |
8.10 | The War to End All Wars | Essential | What happened next for Steven Taylor and the lead into two stories on the First Doctor Volume 1 set |
8.11 | The Elixir of Doom | ||
8.12 | Second Chances | Essential | Zoe wraps up her arc and the whole range… for now! |
A really useful overview of the range – I think The War to End All Wars ought to be marked as essential though as there are two stories in the First Doctor Companion Chronicles box set that directly follow on from it to form a trilogy. 🙂
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A good point, well made. I will update!
Thanks Aidan!
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